As I sit cramped on a mini bus heading for Bangkok, I’m reminded of my least favourite part of traveling, traveling. I haven’t done a ton of “traveling” throughout North America, mostly vacationing, but I’ve taken enough budget airlines, taxi cabs and 16 hour Grey Hound bus rides (from Edmonton/Vancouver) to understand that a certain level of quality is to be expected and (most of the time) delivered. Day one of this trip I decided to throw that all out the window. It’s always best to have the lowest of expectations with these things. As we have migrated from West to Eastern Europe and finally to South East Asia my lowest expectations are more and more frequently not met. However, this is just par for the course, I’m afraid. Most of the time we just pay our (most definitely overpriced) fare and hope to God we make it to our destination. And, with any luck, our back packs will make it, too. Neil and I are pretty good sports about all the nonsense that goes along with budget traveling, but some times it’s just too much. Most of our journeys have included one or more of the following pleasures that will be burned in my memory forever.
Kids/Babies-Anytime you see the group of people preparing to board, the screaming, seat kicking shit monster is seated directly behind us.
Butting-This applies to all age groups. If there is even the smallest amount of room between you and the service counter someone will push you aside to go first.
Music-Why oh why is music always blasted at full volume at all times? Usually accompanied by a TV playing the corresponding video, and almost always it’s karaoke.
Bodily Fluids/Grooming- Nose picking, nail cutting, nose blowing, teeth picking, open mouth coughing, barfing(!), and flea picking. You name it, it happens. It’s always more appreciated in small compact transportation with no escape.
Talking/Yelling-Why people decide to have very loud very lengthy conversations with their neighbor (or their cell phone) will always baffle me.
Smells-Think of the smelliest food item available, then age it to slow rot and bring it on a bus for lunch. Yum!
Bathroom- If the transport in question has a so called “bathroom”, you better REALLY need to go ’cause it usually isn’t worth it. No TP, soap, light, or standing room EVER!
Time Line-Whatever they said X 3
Bitch! Bitch! Complain! Complain! It’s kind of fun thinking of all these ridiculous scenarios, because even at the worst of times I would still rather be holding my pee for hours while collecting baby drool on my lap than showing up for work.
That being said I’ve included our train ride to Istanbul…..
With both overnight trains, Neil and I have opted for a sleeper room. The price is usually quite a bit higher, but it’s so worth it!! Each time we’ve had a private room with a sink, mirror and big window. It makes the trip more of an adventure than a chore. I absolutely love traveling by train, it’s such a novelty. We began in Bucharest, scheduled to go through Bulgaria. We expected to arrive at the Bulgarian/Turkish border around 2:00am. With every border crossing (exclusive of air), there are two stops; one to leave the country and one to enter the next. The whole day goes off without a hitch. Traveling by train is always the easiest. All the passengers are just as excited as you; chatting in the hallway, snapping pictures, enjoying the view. Neil usually has trouble sleeping on trains. I passed out like a light. I think it’s the white noise of the the train along the tracks that does it. As expected, around the 2:00am the conductor screamed for everyone to get up while banging on all the doors. It’s takes about 30 seconds for the border dudes to check our passports, but we sit at the station for 40 minutes waiting for everyone else. Off to the Turkish border.
The conductor started screaming again. Unexpectedly, this time we had to go outside to get our visas. I felt pretty vulnerable standing in jammies, passport in hand, waiting in the cold with a hundred other shivering travelers. This place looked like the end of the world; cold, dark, guys holding machine guns staring at everyone existing the train. Not the place to mess around. There were two lines formed; one to purchase your visa and one to get the visa checked and your passport stamped. As far as we read in our Lonely Planet Guide book, people who are traveling with a passport from anywhere in the EU (which included us) the visa was free when entering from the Bulgarian border. We got to the front of the line, showed our UK passports and……we owed 30 Euros??! What?! Why? We didn’t get an explanation. We only had 20 Euros between the two of us (Yes! We’re stupid). No bank machines. No stores. No nothing. We were going to be left at the Turkish border! I started begging. Seriously. No hesitation. I started asking the other people in the line up for money. What the hell else were we going to do? Freezing cold, stressed. Finally, some French kid heard our desperation and was generous enough to lend us 10 Euros. Yay! We’re not going to be detained at the Turkish border!! We ran at top speed to the visa counter and then to the second window (they were 150 meters apart for each other for some reason). We were the very last kids to get through.
Word to the wise. If you are traveling to Turkey, have enough cash to pay for your visa. I’ve carried more than enough over every border since.
It’s not possible to take a train from Sighişoara straight to Istanbul. So, we bought train tickets from Sighişoara to Bucharest and planned to stay in Bucharest one night before heading to Turkey the following day.
As we waited for our train, tickets in hand, looking like keener tourists, a Bucharest train pulls up 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. Confused, we asked the conductor if it was our train. Neil showed him our tickets and the conductor confirmed it was ours. We grabbed our gigantic bags and rushed to the nearest train entrance while he hurried us along. The train barely stopped long enough to let passengers on and off. My last foot just made it on and away we went. It didn’t take long before we started to notice things were a little off. As explained in an earlier post, Northern Romania is very different from Southern Romania. We expected to see backpackers heading to Bucharest, instead we saw older Romanian couples with packed lunches, knitting supplies, wearing home sewn clothing giving us the usual odd stare. We immediately inquired what the end destination of the train was realizing that WE WERE ON THE WRONG TRAIN!! Ahhh! I ran up and down the walkway looking for someone in charge to tell us when the next stop is. No one to be found. A passenger informs us that the train has made little to no stops most of his trip. Not good news. We slowing came to accept our fate; we are heading North and it might be a while. We didn’t really need to be in Turkey at any particular time, but we felt our time in Romania was sufficient and were ready for a new country. We began looking into places to stay and sorting out what we could possibly do once we arrived. Surprisingly enough, 20 mins into our unwanted adventure the train slowed to a stop and we ran off that train as fast as we could, laughing at our stupidity.
After the excitement, we took into account of where we were….no where. Literally. As I sat on a rickety wooden bench, Neil read the name of the town out load. D. U. M. B…The tiny little nothing of a place we arrived in was called “Dumbrăveni“. I couldn’t even make this shit up. We killed ourselves laughing at our situation and started thinking of a plan. We hunted someone down who worked there and used some form of made up sign language to convey where to we needed to go. Finally we managed to purchase a ticket back to Brasov, because, “no train Bucharest”. Womp. But, it was better than nothing.
Slowly people started to show up in the waiting area. Now these people have never seen a tourist before. For some reason we never thought to pull out the camera during this whole mess, but if my eyes could take pictures I would show the you faces of people who honestly thought they were seeing aliens from another planet. Children we’re literally pointing and giggling. Old ladies smiled from a far. Funny stuff. I loved it. It’s rare to be in a place so untouched by modern day. You think the world is so connected and then you’re confronted with the very opposite idea.
So long story long, a train arrives and we can’t believe our eyes. It’s the train we were SUPPOSED to catch, but for some reason it was 45 minutes late. We hopped on with huge(!) grins from ear to ear. The conductor does his rounds checking everyone’s tickets and all is well. We crack the cold beers stashed in our bags and let the train take us to Bucharest.
Because we didn’t take any pictures related to this post, I’m including pictures of the cute kitties and puppy that live at the Blue Beach Resort (where we are now). Introducing, Yoda, Smigel and Dude!
Next stop, the real home of Dracula; the birth place of Vlad the Impaler. Besides the chance to visit another ancient part of Romania, seeing Vlad’s childhood home was a huge lure.
At this point we were still staying at hostels (bleh!) and it’s hard to get a real idea of a place until you’ve arrived. So, we decided on this particular hostel based on the name, Nathan’s Villa. (Hi Nathan!)
It was possibly one of the worst place we’ve stayed in yet. Unbeknownst to us, it catered to the budget party backpacker. At first, we made the best of the place. We shot some pool, chatted with the kids and listened to some tunes.
However, as the evening progressed, everyone was forced inside due to noise complaints and our spacious hang out spot turned into a smokey cramped frat house. The music was cranked and there was no where to go, but to bed. The only rooms available slept 12 people. With two kids already in bed and the light off, our options were limited. Basically there was zero privacy and even the pillow I was using to slowly suffocate myself couldn’t block out the Metallica blaring from the basement rec room. Long story short, DO NOT STAY HERE!
The next morning we went to Gia Hostel across the street and booked a private room (with all amenities) for only $1 more. Why anyone would stay in a 12 person dorm versus a private room for virtually the same price is beyond me. If you are planning on traveling to Sighişoara, consider yourself warned.
The first night, before the annoyances began, we went for dinner. The hostel staff recommended the restaurant Cafe Rustic. The decor was everything that I imagine Gothic to decor to be; cold stone walls, dark wood furniture with red velvet cushions, dimly lit black metal chandlers, flickering red wax candles. It was impressive how authentic everything felt. (this picture didn’t really capture it and made it look really bright)
Ironically the whole mood was completely thrown off, by the flat screen TV mounted on the wall playing MTV’s 80’s greatest hits. They even went as far as to pipe the sound through the restaurant speakers. It was hilarious! Neil and I gobbled our meals while singing along to Depeche Mode, U2 and Queen. I ordered a traditional Romanian dish, forcemeat in cabbage and Neil ordered Romanian Goulash. Everything was incredibly tasty. Unfortunately, the next morning Neil was violently ill because of it. Thankfully we moved to a much better hotel because we spent 3 days laying around eating pizza and watching bad TV waiting for it to pass. OK, I ate all the pizza.
On day 4 of our stay, we finally made it out and about. We walked up to the main citadel. It was quite a ways to the top, not exactly ideal for someone just getting over a stomach bug, but worth it all the same.
The winding path led us to the top revealing the perfect view of the whole town.
Vendors were out in full force touting everything Dracula along with some pretty random stuff too.
No reason for this picture except that I love cobblestone.
Feeling adventurous, we decided to follow a crowd up a steep and lengthy stairway. It was quite mysterious to climb these creepy stairs with out knowing where they led.
After a breather at the top, we discovered a church and the most impressive graveyard. It seemed to go on forever.
As we read the names on the gravestones we gathered that the whole graveyard was German.
Our guide book didn’t mention anything beyond that which made it all the more curious. After taking a billion pictures, it was time for lunch.
This is what I’ve been waiting for the whole time. The Romanians turned the birth place of Vlad into a restaurant. Hidden behind an inconspicuous wooden door and up a narrow staircase was the dinning room.
Some of the items on the menu had silly names like ‘Dracula’s Blood Soup’ aka Tomato Soup. Of course that’s what I ordered. How could I not?
After lunch, we walked up the many flights of stairs of the look out tower.
It posed as a museum as well. Each floor displayed some pretty interesting traditional costumes, weapons, tools, cooking utensils etc, but most of them were behind glass; those pictures never really turn out. However, at the very top was the clock. They had the whole thing open so you could see the figurines circling as the time changed.
The view…
Signs and arrows pointing to major cities around the world. It was neat to see the distance to our next adventure, Istanbul.
On our final day I had the best taco salad I think I ever had. Random, yes, but I love eating food, taking pictures of food and talking about food. So, I think it worth mentioning. I’d definitely recommend taking a plane half way across the world, then a 4hr train ride, then a 20min walk up a hill to eat a killer taco salad.
The taco salad was too good to stop and take a picture, but I did get a shot of the espresso after and this glorious black forest cake. Yum!
And that’s that. Sighişoara is a tiny town. Most everything can be seen in a day or two. Unfortunately, Mr. Neil was sick so we probably stayed there longer than anyone ever had.
Next adventure, train ride to Istanbul! Easy peasy. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?
When we first decided to have a travel blog I was dead set an having it completely up to date with tons of interesting ‘insider’ travel info. I envisioned myself as the rogue journalist; documenting life on the road, Hunter S. Thompson style. In truth, it’s a lot more work than expected. I’ve come to the conclusion that actually experiencing life is remarkably more fun than writing about it. Not to say I don’t enjoy writing, but I like to engross myself fully where ever I am and reflect upon it later once I’ve had time to truly absorb it. That being said, I will continue our Romanian journey from the Blue Beach Resort in Thailand; swatting mosquitoes and drinking Chang beer while reminiscing about our peaceful stay in Zărneşti, Romania.
If you are looking for the edge of the world, I think I’ve found it. If you are not familiar with Romania then let me humor you with a quick lesson. Bucharest, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is a ’somewhat’ modern city in southern Romania. Everyday was an auditory cocktail of honking cars, screaming vendors and barking dogs enveloped in an aroma of yummy doner meat contradicted by sewer smell. Brasov was the Dracula immersed culture catering to the vampiric seekers needs. The further north you took the train, the more back in time you traveled.
Introducing, Zărneşti. This tiny village invited us into a world before the industrial revolution, before modern technology, where horse and cart still dominate cobbled streets and howling wild dogs rule the night. We jumped off the train eager for adventure. The main attraction, of this village forgotten by time, was getting back to nature. According to our guide book, there was a beautiful hiking trail (apparently Cold Mountain was filmed in one of the valleys). We’ve been in cities for a while at this point so that was enough draw for me. First impression; everyone is staring at us. Two young white kids with backpacks the size of small vehicles certainly attracted a lot of attention.
We were looking for off the beaten track and I think we found it!! A somewhat short, incredibly sweaty walk later and we find our ‘hostel’, Pensionea Fabius. It’s perfect! A private room in what looks more like a over sized family home than a hostel…with a TV!! We haven’t had privacy or any connection to the western world in a weeks. How exciting?! We drop our bags off and head straight for the trail.
I’m in LOVE with everything I see; kids running through the streets, kitties and puppies playing with each other, whole families sitting in carts pulled by horses.
Everyone was so excited to say ‘Hello’. I felt like a celebrity. Most of the village didn’t have street signs so unsurprisingly we got lost. A cute little old baba saw us looking quite out of place and mimed the actions of a hiker and pointed out the way to the trail. Unfortunately, we still managed to get ourselves lost, again. I think this was one of my favorite memories. We ended up wandering through a farmers field, getting dead ended by a creek forcing us to jump over it, dodging cow patties (and cows), making friends with the local chickens all the while farmers were in the distance tilling the field by ox and bull.
There was nothing but lush green hills as far as we could see.
The next day we tried again with greater success. It was incredible! I have never in my life been anywhere as quiet and serene.
During the entire 7hr hike we managed to see only 4 other hikers the entire time. Surrounded by emerald green grass and the fragrance of the forest we happily climbed higher and higher up the mountain. A modest church was a nice place to take a short break and snap some pictures.
The hike grew from casual to quiet intense. At points, it was a mix of the Grouse Grind and some sort of Romanian torture device.
We were hoping to be rewarded with a waterfall or fresh water lake over the mountain, but alas our only reward was completion and a spectacular view. After taking a few minutes to catch our breath, it was truly worth the effort.
As we descended, thoughts of dinner motivated our feet to walk steadily towards the bottom.
Our hostel offered breakfast and dinner which we happily took advantage of. We were the only ones at every meal. As per their request, we told them what time we would like our meals and exactly on time everything was set out for us. Fresh baked bread and home made soup began dinner followed by a different roast each night. Everything was spectacular! It’s making my mouth water just to think of them.
Zărneşti is definitely in my top ten favorite places on the planet. If you are thirsting for absolute silence and a natural beauty like you’ve never seen, make the effort. I’ve been chasing the zen dragon ever since.
PS: Please excuse the spots on the pictures. We’ve had dirt on the camera mirror and can not find anyone half professional to clean it.
One of my favorite pass times, while traveling, is perusing through the aisles of the local grocery store. Neil and I aren’t really big on junk food, but it’s impossible to resist taking pictures of these hilarious products. I’ve highlighted a few of my fav’s here.
Bucharest, Romania-Fruity Balls Cereal
Bucharest, Romania-Krax Bacon Chips
Bucharest, Romania-Burger Beer
Bucharest, Romania-Ice Crap
Bucharest, Romania-Lady Milk
Bangkok, Thailand-Dr. Taco Chips
Bangkok, Thailand-Pirate Ship Dark Chocolate (these are just rad!)
Bangkok, Thailand-Doll Hair Dye (so you can look like a doll?)
Bangkok, Thailand-Pringles (possibly the worst flavoured chips ever)
Our last day in Brasov we took the tram to the top of the local mountain. I can’t remember how much it cost, but I’m going to guess cheap; probably a dollar.
The view was incredible. It made the hike to the towers seem like nothing.
With such a small city to tour around, we were bound to bump into the same couple of tourists now and again. Funny enough, we happen to run into the same group of Croatian guys everywhere we went. They even stayed in our exact dorm room at our hostel. Naturally we made friends. And, of course we ran into them at the top of the mountain. They offered to take a picture of us at the look out point. I think they must have taken photography tips from Nathan ’cause they jokingly snapped all the pictures at every moment EXCEPT when we were ready for the photo. I think these turned out pretty good, regardless.
We spotted a church with an amazing looking graveyard from the look out point. We made sure to check it out.
The graveyard looked abandoned, but a sweet old lady showed us the way in.
This was the eerie Transylvania that we were looking for. Even though it was broad daylight, I’ve never felt more haunted. Not a soul was in sight. Most of the graves were overgrown slowly becoming entities with personalities all their own.
Our time in Brasov was exactly what I hoped for. Next, a short train to Zarnesti for some serious small town action and a little bit of nature.
And the moment we’ve all been waiting for…DRACULA’S CASTLE!! Well, I’ve been itching to get there at least. The image of “Dracula”, as most people envision, never really existed. He wasn’t created, but definitely embellished, by Irish novelist Bram Stoker. In truth, Vlad III/Prince of Wallachia/Vlad the Impaler/Vlad Ţepeş is the basis for ‘Dracula’. He was a badass dude, to put it lightly, and made some serious history by impaling the Boyar class of Wallachia. His major motivation for such gruesome acts was to avenge his eldest brother and father. The history revolving ‘Dracula’ is quite extensive and interesting for the sadist at heart. My interest was pure curiousity. Apparently, Vlad the Impaler only made a single visit to this infamous castle, but I was still beyond excited to make the trek.
A very sweaty, hour long, bus ride later and we were among the hundreds of other tourists that had the same idea. Damn! I thought we’d be the only ones that thought of this.
We made the best of it. We took our time checking out all the little nooks and crannies of this huge castle; waiting for crowds to pass to take the perfect picture.
It wasn’t everything that I ever imagined, but it was pretty damn cool. Walking through the inspiration for such a classic novel, was definitely worth the trip. If we were there at night, with no one around, I’m sure that I would be scared to pieces.
The market at the end was just as entertaining. Any thing you could possibly sell at a tourist trap, they sold; mugs, ashtrays, picture books, stuffed toys…it was impressive. I wanted to buy it all! Who doesn’t want a Dracula throw rug and matching curtains?!
Bran Castle was different than I expected, mostly due to the amount of tourists, but it was worth it. If you’re ever in Transylvania, it’s a must see. Just don’t expect anything too scary unless your afraid of line ups.
Transylvania was the perfect jump back into our Eastern European trip. Like I mentioned in a previous post, it’s one of those places I thought I would only read about. Bucharest was fun, but I was more interested in seeing the small Gothic towns of Romania. Brasov was our first stop.
We flew into Bucharest from the Netherlands and took a train headed North.
Our 2.5 hour train ride turned into 7 hours. Hardly anyone spoke English and the only info we could get was ‘accident’. We had a lot of time to kill.
Crazy 8 Count Down
Day one didn’t go past noon before we found ourselves in a tattoo shop. We were looking to get tattoos in Amsterdam, but it was wickedly expensive. We took a quick browse through their work and decided to just go for it. The shop looked remarkably clean and the Heavy Metal dudes, that ran the shop, seemed stoked to have us. How bad could a ridiculously cheap Transylvanian tattoo really be?
Neil went first
The day a new chapter began
The rest of the day was spent checking out the sites. The first point of interest was Biserica Neagră or Black Church. The latter name was due to a fire in 1689. Unfortunately, like most other churches, they did not allow photography. We snapped some photos of the outside. Still impressive.
We climbed the two watch towers that over looked the city
Both towers had a million rickety old stairs that made me realize just how out of shape I really was. The view was totally worth it.
The city itself didn’t have a lot of typical tourist sites. It didn’t need to. Just being there was the experience. Most of the streets were cobblestone surrounded by buildings literally built hundreds of years ago during the Gothic Era.
Literally the weirdest statue ever
Little ‘ol baba’s sold $1 ice cream and homemade crafts in the popular walking square. Flocks of swallows dive bombed tourists enjoying their coffee in one of many cafes along the main walking street. The smell of fresh popcorn filled the air; only $0.50 a bag.
I loved it! This was the Romania I was looking for; trapped in time. Now all I needed was Dracula…..
Once we started plannıng thıs trıp, Romanıa became one of the countrıes I just couldn’t waıt to vısıt. Transylvanıa, specıfıcally, just sounded lıke one of those fantasy places you only read about and never actually see. Arrıvıng overnıght by traın only catered to my ımagınatıon of thıs Gypsy land.
We arrıved at 8:00am. Belıeve ıt or not I slept pretty good on the traın; wıth the sounds of the wheels gatherıng speed and the cool breeze through the wındow. I had to be woken up by the conductor bangıng on our door screamıng “Bucharest!”. We had a sınk and mırrow ın our cozy sleeper room so we washed up and prepared to step out ınto yet another world. A few errors ın dırectıon and we caught a bus to our hostel (YMCA Bucharest). We were warned by our travel book to avoıd the cab drıvers at the traın statıons because they often overcharge tourısts.
Neıl mıstakenly booked us ın for the day after we arrıved (who knows what day ıt ıs anymore). Thıs proved to be a bıgger hıccup than expected and we had to kıll some tıme on the lobby couch whıle the manager of the hostel fıgured out where to put us. Funny enough he decıded to let us stay at a half renovated condo, also owned by the hostel. It was free so we saıd ‘what the hell’. It was, as he explaıned, ın the mıddle of beıng renovated. There was saw dust on the floor, water bottles everywhere, but FREE. That was the magıc word. We’ll take ıt!
After a quıck nap on the make shıft pull-out couch/bed, we walked to downtown. As always, ıt was boılıng hot. Probably around 30-33c. No wınd. We couldn’t walk the 3kms fast enough.
Our fırst ımpressıon was, busy(!). There was tons of traffıc, people screamıng tryıng to sell you thıngs, cars honkıng, mıllıons of people.
Once we got onto the smaller streets ıt really started to take shape. The archıtecture was ınterestıng. The buıldıngs were a mıx of gorgeous Gothıc master pıeces and bland Communıst fılıng cabınets. It went from breathtakıng to kınd of creepy.
We grabbed a coffee (I drınk coffee now) and took ıt all ın, stıll a lıttle wıped from the traın rıde.
We walked back to our make shıft apartment ın the cool nıght aır stoppıng to buy $1 beers and hılarıous snacks at the convenience store.
To our surprıse, we dıscovered a TV (wıthout a cable connectıon) ın the room. After some tıme of negotıatıng wıth the ancıent pıcture box we got ıt to play at least one Englısh channel clear enough to watch some random movıe wıth Stephen Balwın and called ıt a nıght.
It was our fırst sleep ın Romanıa. We were warned about the stray dogs. 200,000 ın Bucharest alone. We saw some around town durıng the day, but nothıng lıke thıs. At all hours of the nıght you could hear garbage cans beıng tossed around, dogs searchıng for food and lookıng for a fıght. Howlıng wıld dogs owned the streets now. I was happy to be on the 9th floor safely hıdden ın our very own fılıng cabınet.
The next mornıng we succesfully took a cab back to the hostel. Yay(!) not gettıng rıpped off by a Romanıan cabby! Our room ıs sweet! The hostel used to be a kındergarden and they left all of the orıgınal ‘decor’. It was really cool and eerıe at the same tıme.
The manager, Bogdan, made the place worth stayıng. He was so generous and acommodatıng. He BBQ’d tons of food and fed us free beer all nıght.
Also, we had to stay and extra nıght due to the swıtch ın our travel schedule and because the hostel was already booked full he let us stay at hıs own personal home for free. He took us for free ın a cab to hıs apartment and lıterally gave us the keys and securıty code. He left us to go back to work. I couldn’t belıeve the trust from hım. If you ever go to Bucharest stay at the YMCA and say ‘Hı’ for me.
The next two days we spent our tıme casually wanderıng around. I’m continuously wındow shoppıng.
Always on the hunt for new food and tryıng to avoıd the constant sandwıch and pızza dıet. Neıl trıed an amazıng Goulash.
We smoked our fırst waterpıpe durıng our travels!
One of the days we took the subway to see a breakdancıng and graffıtı competıtıon. It was really ınterestıng to see some ‘hıp’ kıds from the other sıde of the world. The DJ was kınd of a joke, but the dancers were ıncredıble! We took dozens of vıdeos and pıctures. (flıckr)
On the last full day, we walked through a local market. There were so many cool thıngs I wısh I could fıt ınto my backpack, but sadly I could only take pıctures wıth me. I would have decorated my whole house wıth old pırate shıps, ancıent coıns and art work from thıs lıttle market. Tıme to break out the 50mm.
Nearıng the end of our stay ın Bucharest a frıend of mıne and I got to chattıng on Facebook. She was housesıttıng ın Holland for two weeks and offered to put us up. Sınce we were practıcally on the other sıde of Europe we had to thınk about ıt. But, we weıghed the pros and cons of backtrackıng and decıded to do ıt! It was such a good opportunıty to see an old frıend and one of the countrıes on my ‘must see’ lıst. Transylvanıa wıll have to waıt two weeks.
Crazy 8 Count Down
Neil went first
The day a new chapter began
Literally the weirdest statue ever
